Empathy Communicates Trust

When I first started reading Peter Bregman’s blog post on the Harvard Business Review, I appreciated the advice he offered as the father of a 3 year old. I tucked this away in the mental file for the times my son has a similar experience.

As the article continued, I wasn’t sure how Bregman would turn this anecdote about a nine-year old girl who was disqualified from her swim meet into a business lesson which would be applicable to the workplace.  And in two simple sentences he does it:

“Empathy communicates trust. And people perform best when they feel trusted.”

It is that simple.  Leadership is about being authentic and there is nothing more authentic than practicing empathy with others.